Cambodia

Just over 15kg check-in each and about 12kg hand baggage in hand we were dropped off at the airport and successfully boarded our plane (because we slipped through the hand luggage check point while they were checking someone else's hand luggage!). What a relief. Our journey from this point on was going to be an arduous one. Because our original plan was to spend time in Malaysia (before we chose to spend more time in Laos) our flight was still taking us to Kuala Lumpur. From here we had to make our way from their low cost terminal to their main terminal and catch a lift to our hotel. Very early the next morning the whole process would have to be reversed to get us back to the Low cost terminal and get ourselves and all our baggage successfully back onto another Air Asia flight which would take us to Johor Baru, still in Malaysia but on the border with Singapore. This was much cheaper than flying directly into Singapore.

One airport shuttle bus would take us to our connecting bus. We waited and waited for that connecting bus which eventually came and took us the few kilometres to the border. Again all our luggage had to come with us through the border because we were going to catch yet another bus on the other side. At our final bus stop we managed to secure a taxi quickly and pack our load in the boot. A luxurious, but bit run down room at the Peninsula Excelsior awaited us. We were finally in Singapore, shopping paradise...

At noon our pick up arrived and escorted us to our room in the 4 star Borei Angkor Hotel. The discount internet price that Johan had managed to secure was so low the receptionist had to check it twice. Included in the package was our buffet supper and breakfast the next day, one of their best rooms, free 1 hour massages for the both of us and free internet access. Johan was thoroughly chuffed with himself. We lazed in their enormous pool, ate and chilled in our beautiful room. Janine had one of her best baths of all times (and Janine LOVES her baths) in that hotel.

One of the more quirky moments of our one night's stay in luxury was the fact that we had to pack super smart for our next day's flight on Air Asia. 15kg maximum check in baggage and 7kg hand baggage was not going to cover Janine's accumulation of souvenirs, gifts and wedding supplies. Our 55kg or so of luggage was going to have to be well planned. We asked reception for a scale. After much ado the hotel managed to locate one, an enormous ancient one that they managed to dig up who knows where and trolley up to us. We were very amused. We got to work packing and planning how much weight we could get into our hand baggage so as to still be able to pass it off as a light 7kg each.

We weren't quite sure how our bike batteries would hold, but we slid off (our bikes are silent) into the early hours and covered the almost 8 km to get back to Angkor Wat. On the way Janine started losing power and Johan just saw how we would end up pushing these bikes all around the ruins that day. He was not impressed - to say the least. The hassle was then to figure out what to do with flat batteries. We eventually found that we could change our batteries for fully charged ones at quite a few points along the way. You clip yours out and someone (sometimes even children) hand you a charged one - free of charge. Could not be easier! Janine was in her element and as the heat started pounding Johan could not have enjoyed it more as we cruised past all the other tourists furiously peddling and sweating their way from ruin to ruin.

Another fantastic discovery was the ruins of Preah Khan which also have the most beautiful strangler fig trees taking over, but with hardly any other visitors. This ruin was one of our favourites. We spent the rest of the day gliding around from one wat to another. There are so many incredible structures that you just pass by with a glance because there are so many others to get to. Janine aptly started calling these wats "so wats" and every time we passed one that we could just not afford the time or energy to check out, we just waved it off : "so wat!?"

We ate our last Red Piano dinner because tomorrow night our amazing buffet meal is going to be included…

At 6am we were in our tuk-tuk on our way to Angkor Wat (again). Incredibly steep steps connect you with the upper levels of this square wedding cake design temple. Angkor Wat is said to be the world's largest single religious monument. It is the most famous of all the temples, cities and other ruins found within the Angkor Archaeological Park which stretched over 400 square Kilometres. This protected area contains the remains of over 1000 different temples - all products of the Khmer Empire dating between the 9th and 15th Century AD.

The day was beautiful and we moved on to the Angkor Tom temple grounds which are huge. One can break away from the Japanese crowds and explore. We discovered one or two tree-reclaimed temples of our own - amazing structures hidden in the far reaches of the grounds. One just can't get over all the incredible carvings - their detail and their sheer numbers. We also went to the famous Tomb raider set - the Ta Prohm - well photographed due to its fame and very photogenic jungle trees which slowly grow all over the temple stones. While there are many carvings here they are fewer and less fine than the temples we had been to previously. No carvings, however, compared to those we found in Banteay Srei (Citadel of Women) a more than 1000 year old temple quite a few kilometres on, but so worth the distance. The carvings are so fine and intricate one can't help wishing for a glimpse of what this place looked like in its prime.

Our Red Piano supper was superb, once again. We chatted about the following day's plans of solo exploration and Janine was quite annoyed that, considering the distance and the heat, foreigners were not allowed to hire motorbikes. She remembered seeing an electric bicycle for the first time when we were in Cuba. She wished we had an option like that now. We could not believe it when, outside our internet spot, we found electric bikes to hire. Janine was thrilled, Johan was weary, but off we sailed home on our hired steeds (about US$4 per day) and tucked them safely away next to our hotel for tomorrow's explorations…

Culture shock: Foreigners may not rent motorbikes in Siem Reap and surrounds

A very comfortable bus ride to Siem Reap ended in the most extreme form of hassling we have yet encountered. Your feet can barely touch the ground as people descend upon you, screaming various impossibly cheap tuk-tuk rates at you, pressing in from all sides. Desperate people. Quite disturbing. And it doesn't matter what you say or don't say - do or don't do - they press on. Johan also had his own swarm and Janine was trying to persuade her swarm to alight and join his in this fiery negotiation process. Johan eventually (after considerably expressing his anger and frustration) picked a guy who took us a short distance and then stopped at his friends who were to explain to us that he won't take us the full distance unless we use him as our driver for the duration of our stay. We quickly had them understand that the full distance would be covered immediately. Our driver, who had no idea where he was going, was eventually helped to such a degree that we arrived at our destination quite a while later.

Although the swimming pool of our hotel was in the parking area, after a brief walk around the noisy areas of Siem Reap, we settled in quite nicely in our peaceful place. Our view from our window was overlooking two swimming pools full of fat crocs (we assumed their captivity was for culinary purposes). After good food and not so good internet we picked ourselves a driver and headed in the direction of the ancient and legendary Angkor Wat (a wat is a Buddhist temple).

Our driver took us on a detour to a land mine museum. A private, non-profit initiative of a previous Khmer Rouge and Vietcong fighter who uses the museum to expose people to the truth and the dangers of the weapons used in Cambodia. It also supports (by donation) land mine removal squads and the grounds are home to many a maimed local who had lost limbs to land mine explosions - a condition representative of too many Cambodians.

We had our 3 day Angkor Archaeological Park pass in hand, wind in the hair, as we zoomed off to the world famous, UNESCO world heritage site, Angkor Wat temple. What a sight. What an amazing construction. There were many people on the periphery, but inside the cascading temple levels we often found ourselves gazing at murals covering full flanks of the building - all alone. The evening was a good time as the heat is schorching in the day. We headed back to Siem Reap hungry and exhausted. After such an amazing meal that evening, we returned many times to the famous Red Piano restaurant during our 4 days stay.

The first full day in Phnom Phen was rest day - snacks, internet, good food, discovery channel - the usual. We had agreed with our previous night's tuk-tuk driver that we would make use of his services for our sight seeing the next day. The competition for tourist business is the fiercest in Cambodia of all our visited countries - you cant move without being accosted continuously - even the children are shrewd, unrelenting and sometimes even abusive sales people. This can get quite disturbing and definitely very draining.

Day 2 was for delving into Cambodia's recent past for which it is so famous - the genocide and social destruction of the country brought about by the Khmer Rouge reign under Pol Pot. It is almost unthinkable what evil one man could dream up and how much far-reaching destruction he could achieve during the short period of 1975-1979. The United Human Rights Council's site sums it up well - click here to read up.

We started by heading off to the famous killing fields. En route our driver took us to an underground shooting range with a choice of war time weapon relics (everything is there - hand guns, AK47s, M16s - even hand grenades and rocket launchers!) which you can try your hand at for a decent fee (including the driver's commission of course). Johan took a round on an AK47 and Janine took the M16. Weird experience to shoot with the very weapons used in a very cruel war.

The killing fields were close by - a place of mass execution and burial during the Khmer Rouge regime. There is a monument filled with skulls of the victims. We read all the info boards and headed on our way.

Bumping and bouncing our way on the dusty roads (our driver had very kindly bought us dust masks for the ride) back through town we arrived at the most disturbing of all the sites. Tuol Sleng was an old school converted into a prison and torture centre for the captives condemned by the Khmer Rouge. The grounds have been preserved very much as they were during the time of the genocide and is now a museum. The Pol Pot regime kept meticulous detail of their torture and execution campaigns and all the victims that ended up at these grounds were photographed. A huge collection of these photos are on display in the buildings as are some photos taken of the torturing process. - All in all a very depressing and disturbing exposure.

After a brief walk through the Russian market we headed back for some peace and light-heartedness to break the day's somber mould.

Culture Shock: There are no public bus routes operating in the city.

Just after 7:00 we climbed into our boat to the far end of the island where our transport company would be waiting. At 8:00 we crammed 12 foreigners, with all their luggage, and 3 locals into one of their small long tail boats and headed for the mainland. The next stop was to wait for the mini bus transfer to the border to fill up. By 8:30 we were heading to the border. 9:15 we started exiting Laos, entering Cambodia and waiting for our new transport to fill up. As usual our unusual South African passports caused a stir as officials typically scuffled around trying to figure out how this country was to be categorized. Our bus was packed to the brim and ready to go by 11:00.

About an hour later we reached the Mekong cross-over where we had to load off all our baggage to cross with the ferry. Then our bus driver decided we can leave the baggage in the bus - so we reloaded. Then we walked the distance in the scorching heat (Janine is convinced that Cambodia does not have an ozone layer) while our bus followed us. After all that we stopped on the other side for a 1.5 hour lunch break while we changed buses again. So by 14:00 we were heading off again. We stopped 3 times to put in fuel (who knows why) and once to drop off some travellers and to have supper. Just after 20:00 we were on the move again to do the final 2.5 hours to Phnom Phen. One tuk-tuk ride later and we had found a great hotel. Just another day of travel!

Culture Shock: The terrain reminds one of other Asian countries but one thing struck us - the amount of litter. Some streets in the Capital City can easily be mistaken for municipal rubbish dumps and as Johan noted, Cambodia smells much worse than India ever did.